Ever wondered who was the best basketball player in the Pac-10 in 1982? If that trivia item has been bugging you since the Reagan administration, Google Cloud Platform and the National Collegiate Athletic Association have some good news for you. The NCAA has named Google as its “Official Cloud of the NCAA,” which mostly means you’ll see a gazillion ads for Google Cloud during the basketball tournament in March. But sports junkies could learn some interesting historical data from this partnership, as the NCAA also plans to upload more than 80 years of sports data across a number of different… Read More
Intel is upping its virtual reality game. The tech giant today announced a multi-year deal with Turner Sports and the NCAA to stream March Madness college basketball games in virtual reality, starting with this month’s NCAA men’s national tournament. Intel is building off its acquisition of virtual reality startup Voke last year. Before that deal, Voke partnered with Turner and the NCAA to broadcast the 2016 Final Four and National Championship in virtual reality for the first time. Now Intel, with help from Turner Sports, is doubling down. Starting with this weekend’s Sweet 16 and Elite 8 matchups, the company will stream six games — including… Read More
Can Villanova repeat as national champs? Is this finally Gonzaga’s year? How far will Northwestern go? Don’t ask us. If you really want help with your NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship bracket, go ask Bing. The folks at the Microsoft search engine say they use “intelligent machine-learning technology to analyze social and search signals” in making their March Madness bracket a better bet than the one filled out by your kid. After not watching a single college basketball game this season (guilty — Syracuse fan!) I’m a little apprehensive about filling out a bracket in the next several hours. But Bing sure… Read More
LAS VEGAS — Utilizing new technology is a “very high priority” for the NCAA, according to the organization’s leader. GeekWire met with NCAA President Mark Emmert last week at CES, the giant tech event in Las Vegas, after he spoke on a panel hosted by Turner Sports that included NBA Commissioner David Stern, former NBA star Grant Hill, and WNBA legend Sue Bird. We talked to Emmert, who was previously president at the University of Washington — he also earned his bachelor’s from the Seattle-based university — about how the NCAA thinks about and uses technology. He said the non-profit association, which… Read More
